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Global Defense Initiative
“Sanctioned by the United Nations, the Global Defense Initiative has one goal: to eliminate multi-national terrorism in an effort to preserve freedom. - EVA Database briefing” The United Nations Global Defense Initiative (UNGDI), or Global Defense Initiative (GDI), is the global government of Earth. It was founded in accordance with the United Nations Global Defense Act (UNGDA), on the date of October 12, 1995, as a formalized military branch of the United Nations and evolved into a supra-national state in its own right. The GDI's initial goal was to preserve world order by combating global terrorism, epitomized by its nemesis the Brotherhood of Nod, but eventually outgrew its original mandate to become a world government. Official Fact Sheet Founding Earliest concept developed during the Second World War. Founded in October 12, 1995 in accordance to the United Nations Global Defense Act. Classification 1995: International peacekeeping division under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. 2030: De-facto political and military superpower, incorporating the governmental functions of member countries. 2047: Provisional world government and military superpower. 2077: Supra-national state in alliance with the Brotherhood of Nod. Mandate 1995: To ensure the safety of the world and combat global terrorism. 2030-2062: Eradicate the global effects of Tiberium and protect humanity from harm. 2062-2077: Eradicate the spread of Tiberium with Nod's cooperation and protect the people. Base of Operations 1995: UN Military Command Center (location classified). 2030-2031: GDSS Philadelphia, Hammerfest, Southern Cross. 2047: GDSS Philadephia (until March), Pentagon (Washington DC), Reykjavik. 2062: Manchester, UK. 2077: New Adana, GST Tzadik. Political Strength 1995: Political support of the United Nations, G7 and other member countries (typically Western nations). 2030-2031: Forced to incorporate political power after the UN and member states ceased to exist. GDI is left as the sole political power remaining fighting for freedom. 2031-2052: Provisonal world government in control of the remaining Blue zones on the planet. GDI has provided occasional relief to the yellow zone populations to gather political support of the populations within the Blue Zones. GDI officially controls the yellow zones on paper though mainly sees them as staging grounds. 2062: Forced to look after the yellow zone populations after all remaining Blue zones have been overrun by Tiberium. 2077: Global government in alliance with Nod. Able to appease the yellow zone populations to some extent. Economic Strength 1995: GDI has the financial backing of the G7 member nations and the UN, with multiple Tiberium harvesting operations. Note that when the UN was fooled by Nod, GDI's budget was cut for a short time. 2030: Multiple Tiberium operations although the Brotherhood of Nod still controls the majority of the world's Tiberium supply. 2047: Multiple Tiberium mining operations around the world provide them with needed funding. Also engaged in negotiations to secure funding from owners of Tiberium spikes and civilian silos. 2077: Combined economic strength with Nod, due to the alliance. Military Strength GDI has the combined military strength of individual member nations around the world. GDI military doctrine centers on superior firepower and armor (more information below). GDI developed and expanded the ion cannon network as a better alternative to nuclear missiles to ensure dominance on space and developed the ORCA family of aircraft. The faction has also introduced mechanized walkers and railguns to their arsenal. Affiliations 1995: United Nations, G7, member countries. 2000s-2030: Secretly installed Nod general Hassan as the puppet leader of Nod to ensure control over the splintered faction. 2030: Mutual alliance with the Forgotten during the Second Tiberium War. Entered into a brief alliance with Nod against CABAL during the Firestorm Crisis. 2047: Sub-factions include the Steel Talons division and Zone Operations Command. Brief alliance with Nod in Sydney during the Scrin Invasion of Earth. 2062-2077: Alliance of convenience with Nod to counter the spread of Tiberium. History Origins The Global Defense Initiative, or GDI, was originally a covert multinational special forces group operating under the designation of Operations Group Echo: Black Ops 9 before 1996. The organization was formed by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of the World Wars, and was designed to be a covert, specialized peace enforcing unit with a mandate to operate worldwide, outside of regular UN forces. The unit was equipped with both the military and political means to deal with anything from local ethnic unrest to regionalized armed conflicts across the globe, and was given as its primary directive the ensuring that no fledgling conflict would ever escalate into a continental or worldwide emergency again. The roots of GDI could be found back during the Great World War II, following the devastation of Greece. Reacting to Soviet brutality, the United Nations approved a unique initiative. The purpose of the proposal was to provide military funding to help increase the Allied Forces' support. More importantly, the initiative called for the creation of an agency for global defense. Over the following years, as O.G.E.:B.O.9 repeatedly became deployed throughout the world, rumours about their existence began to slowly seep into the mainstream public consciousness. Eventually, the overseeing Security Council came to the decision that transparency and limited disclosure were the best response to the international media speculations on the nature and purpose of this secret unit. The final proverbial straw for this would come when an operation in which the attempted assassination of Saddam Hussein, in a covert effort to prevent the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War, failed miserably and resulted in the death of a large number of agents. This incident, coupled with the rapid global spread of a mysterious and toxic extraterrestrial substance known as Tiberium, as well as the ever increasing influence of the globalized Brotherhood of Nod society, prompted the Security Council to begin to greatly expand and revise the mandate as well as the purpose of O. G. E.:B. O.9. The organization was restructured and was brought out of the shadows in order to make it capable of tackling the threats of the modern ages effectively as well as directly. In accordance with the United Nations Global Defense Act (UNGDA), the UNGDI or fully the United Nations Global Defense Initiative was founded at the date of October 12, 1995. The UN proposal stated the following: "The Global Defense Initiative was founded to enforce the United Nations Global Defense Act and uphold the ideals as outlined in the United Nations Charter." Their first supreme commander became the American Brigadier General Mark Jamison Sheppard, United Nations Military Command. The First Tiberium War During the First Tiberium War GDI fought Nod forces on a multitude of fronts. Eventually, Nod propaganda efforts painted GDI as being responsible for atrocities such as the slaughter of the entire population of Bialystok, through a series of false news broadcasts recorded by Greg Burdette, which forced GDI to pull back from many territories which were then quickly taken over by Nod supporters. This culminated in the UN becoming forced to discontinue its public funding of GDI due to the fear of public backlash. Nod began assaulting GDI strongholds everywhere, believing that the organization had been severely weakened by these manipulative efforts. As it turned out, the UN had faked their financial withdrawal in an attempt to outwit Nod's leader Kane, a brilliant and charismatic man. The plan was successful, and Nod forces were greatly surprised to find the bases they were attacking were heavily fortified. Most attacks were complete victories for GDI. Two more years of fighting continued, however, until GDI operatives finally located Nod's main global headquarters, the so-called "Temple of Nod", just outside of Sarajevo. A three day battle began between GDI and Nod's most elite troops. GDI could not break through the Black Hand and had to use their most advanced weapon - the orbital Ion Cannon - was activated. The Temple was destroyed, Kane was pronounced dead, and Nod was crippled, effectively ending the First Tiberium War. The Second Tiberium War With the destruction of the Brotherhood's Sarajevo Temple a period of peace dawned, allowing time for GDI to renew its efforts into researching Tiberium and to study the Brotherhood of Nod's enigmatic and radically advanced Tiberium-based technology. However, GDI forces never recovered Kane's body which was considered by many to be the biggest oversight of the entire war. During these years tabloid headlines and rumors of the continued underground existence of the Brotherhood were commonplace, prompting GDI to conduct investigations into these sightings before eventually sealing each case with few questions answered. The world remained largely at peace until September 2, 2030, when GDI bases around the world found themselves under heavy fire from Nod units. Aboard the "Philadelphia", GDI's top brass could make little sense of it; the Brotherhood as an organized and globalized militant force was supposed to have been almost eliminated and left divided into small and harmless splinter groups after Kane's death. And then the unthinkable happened. GDIs communication equipment was hacked, and in a broadcast to the "Philadelphia", Kane revealed himself to be alive, thereby declaring his return to the global political and military scene. Alarmed with this development, general James Solomon assigned field commander Michael McNeil the task of leading the efforts of countering the Nod assaults and taking the battle to them, thus initiating the Second Tiberium War. During the course of the war GDI became affiliated with the Tiberium-mutated Forgotten in their battles against Nod. GDI took out Nod's Divination project facility as they rescued the Forgotten leader Tratos and, with their help, destroyed Nod's chemical missile plant and Banshee prototype facility. GDI also had to reinforce their bases after Nod overran Hammerfest base in Norway, which prompted GDI to retrieve sonic disruption crystals from the Nod forces. The final battle this time took place in Cairo, with GDI forces striking once again at the heart of Nod, Kane's pyramid and rebuilt Temple. McNeil and Kane went one-on-one and in the end Kane was impaled with a steel beam. GDI subsequently secured the mysterious Tacitus device, which could potentially provide the organization with the means to end the Tiberium infestation on the planet. The Aftermath Shortly after Kane's second "death," it was revealed that the vaccine which The Forgotten leader Tratos had developed and had administered to his kin Umagon proved to be ineffective in curing, or even halting, Tiberium mutations within a human being, instead grossly accelerating mutations. Time began running out quickly as the Tiberium infestation increasingly continued to threaten the future and the very survival of humanity on Earth. GDI thus began to focus the majority of its resources and efforts into unlocking the secrets of the Tacitus while defending themselves against the remainder of the Brotherhood. Tratos, however, was assassinated by forces led by a Nod commander. This left GDI with no alternative other than to attempt to capture the Brotherhood's artificial intelligence unit named CABAL, which was rumored to be able to decode all the information contained within the Tacitus device by means similar to those of Tratos. Anton Slavik, leading that what was left of Nod's core, organized armed forces after the conclusion of the Second Tiberium War, was also working on reactivating CABAL in order to regain their logistical and tactical advantages, and more importantly to prevent the Brotherhood of Nod from fracturing into splinter groups again as it had done so after the conclusion of the First Tiberium War. When GDI recovered the final piece of the Tacitus, however, CABAL suddenly turned on both GDI and Nod in a move that would reveal itself to be part of an independent and premeditated plan of the AI itself. CABAL's increasing threat eventually led to an uneasy alliance between GDI and Nod, with both armies destroying two fronts of CABAL's cyborg production and resource gathering facilities. Their missions were a success, with GDI and Nod mounting a final assault on the renegade artificial intelligence's system core. Upon CABAL's termination, GDI apparently managed to develop a 'cure' for the Tiberium infestation on Earth based on the information they recovered from the Tacitus device, but whether or not they fully succeeded in utilizing this data is unknown. It was later revealed in the Third Tiberium War that Sonic Disrupters could break down Tiberium, and that humans should be prepared for a foreshadowed Scrin invasion. Interbellum Between the Firestorm Crisis and the Third Tiberium War GDI closed many of its bases, focusing on the elimination of the CABAL's remnants and the eradication of Tiberium. During this time GDI didn't see Nod as a threat, continuing it's activities and organization with secrecy, except for the Rio Insurrection and the destruction of Nod's stealth research lab under GDI command in Australia. Along with placing emphasis on ecological recovery and securing the Blue Zones, GDI decided to close several of its military bases, as Nod seemed to be too fractured to provide any resistance to GDI forces. By 2043, they had closed down over 60% of their military bases worldwide. The closure of these bases freed much-needed resources for the newly prioritized task of ecological clean-up, with the flagship project of New Eden carried out by its public works division, Idris Corporation.The Idris Corporation Story. Mirror: The Idris Corporation Story C&C Frontpage. 2010-02-21. Before the onset of the Third Tiberium War, GDI controlled all of the uncontaminated Blue Zones and many of the contaminated, but habitable, Yellow Zones across the planet. With the Blue Zones consisting of a mere 20% of the Earth's surface, the majority of the world's population lived in Yellow Zones, in which the Brotherhood was still able to operate and maintained major influence in some of them. Neither side controlled the Red Zones, areas where the surface had been so badly scarred by Tiberium mutation that it was unrecognizable as Earth and completely inhospitable, at least to non-mutated carbon-based life-forms. GDI had consolidated its power, becoming a de facto world government, being in charge of the Blue Zones and most of the Yellow Zones. While there technically still were member countries, the divisions were of no importance. By this time administrative authority for GDI passed from the United Nations to GDI's own Council of Directors. Ironically, GDI becoming a superstate, replacing national governments is exactly what Kane said would happen. The diversification of purpose led to GDI's military forces becoming a branch of the organization, in the form of the GDI United Peacekeepers (GDIUP). As the years of peace following the Second Tiberium War continued, GDI became somewhat complacent, controversially phasing out some of its more experimental combat technologies (perhaps most infamously the majority of its mechanized walkers, including the Titan and Mammoth Mk. II). The Third Tiberium War However, this period of peace was short lived, as Nod's breakup was a mere illusion. The Brotherhood of Nod struck quickly, infiltrating the Goddard Space Center and disabling GDI's A-SAT (Anti-Satellite) defense systems, responsible for defending GDI's space operations from hostile attacks. Nod then launched a nuclear missile at the Philadelphia while GDI's leaders were in council aboard the space station, critically damaging GDI's command structure and causing widespread chaos. Meanwhile Nod forces launched a coordinated strike against GDI-controlled Blue Zones worldwide. GDI repelled Nod from the Blue Zones after several days of intense fighting, and launched a counter-attack upon what was thought to be a Nod chemical weapons facility in Egypt. It was quickly revealed that this facility was researching and developing a Liquid Tiberium Bomb. GDI crippled Nod's nuclear capabilities in Cairo before proceeding to Sarajevo and using an Ion Cannon on the Brotherhood's Temple Prime by order of acting GDI director Redmond Boyle, against the warnings of General Jack Granger. The Ion Cannon hit a liquid Tiberium deposit beneath Temple Prime, vaporizing it and causing a large chain reaction that wiped out what remained of Sarajevo and the surrounding regions, while at the same time spreading deadly Tiberium fallout all over the Yellow Zones of Eastern Europe. The resulting death toll was catastrophic. Just as GDI thought it had won the war, alien invaders known as the Scrin, apparently attracted by the liquid Tiberium explosion, arrived and wrought havoc upon GDI and Nod alike. GDI deep space scans picked the Scrin up even before they arrived, and in a state of panic Redmond Boyle rashly ordered the entire southern hemisphere's network of Ion Cannons to be activated and unleashed on the aliens. This only served to send 39 Drone Ships crashing into Red Zones throughout the world. Upon landing, the aliens quickly began striking at blue zones all over the globe with deadly precision. GDI forces scrambled to put up an effective resistance, but after their battles with Nod were spread very thin. After repelling the invaders from several of their blue zones, GDI discovered the invaders' seemingly random attacks were just a distraction from the massive, monolithic towers that were being constructed for an unknown purpose and systematically destroyed them. Unbeknownst to GDI, Kane resurfaced once more to end an inner power struggle with one of his generals and sought to control one of the Scrin Towers in an effort to learn more about Tiberium and the alien's technology. As the war ended, only one tower survived the conflict, having been protected from attack until it was completed and became invulnerable to GDI attacks. GDI stopped the invasion and planned to keep the remaining Tower, which ended under Nod control, supposedly inactive and harmless. A number of Scrin invaders were forced to flee for the time being. It is unknown whether or not the first Scrin incursion was a full invasion or something else. Post-TWIII GDI emerged as the apparent victor in the Third Tiberium War, having once again driven Nod underground and neutralized the Scrin harvesting forces on Earth. The GDI, and therefore Earth, was reigned with silence and peace which lasted several years. However, much to their surprise, that silence was broken when in 2052, Nod forces, under the command of the experimental combat AI of the Marked of Kane, known only as LEGION, raided the Rocky Mountains Complex and reclaimed the Tacitus for its creator, who is none other than Kane himself, who has in fact been hiding underground. Despite heavy resistance from ZOCOM, the Steel Talons and the baseline GDI forces stationed there, including the formidable Mammoth Armored Reclamation Vehicle, they were unprepared for the assault of LEGION's cybernetic army. 2062: A dire situation GDI's Tiberium abatement efforts failed after the Third Tiberium War. Tiberium unexpectedly underwent yet another evolution, now growing at such an aggressive rate that it spread across the entire planet unchecked by all conventional means. By 2062, Tiberium infestation was so great that it was predicted that the human race would be completely wiped out within a matter of years (just as the Scrin had earlier expected). Kane resurfaced once more and, given the dire situation, travelled to GDI Global Headquarters in Manchester to form an uneasy alliance.Command & Conquer 4 Q&A - Exclusive First Details, page 2 Command & Conquer 4 Q&A - Exclusive First Details, page 2. GameSpot. July 9, 2009. While the alliance with Nod has proven to be tremendously beneficial towards GDI and the human race in general, having entered a new Golden Age after finally pushing back the spread of Tiberium and reclaiming much of the planet, it has also had the unexpected side-effect of splintering GDI. Much of GDI's military forces and civilian population resent working with Nod, whom they still consider to be a band of fanatics and terrorists, and the old wounds left over from the previous Tiberium Wars have yet to fully heal in the minds of the populace. This is particularly true amongst segments of the military, who consider Kane to be a soulless murderer and see the alliance as a betrayal of GDI's principles and the millions lost to Nod violence, foreshadowing a possibility of a potential civil war within GDI itself. The Incursion War GDI was not the only organisation to be divided by the new alliance. Many Nod followers also believed this to be a direct contradiction to the goals that were laid down by Kane himself. As a result, they split from the Nod Loyalists and started a separated but highly destructive guerilla war against both Kane, GDI and the construction of the Tiberium Control Network. The Nod Separatists rallied around Gideon, an outspoken critic of Kane, as their leader and staged heavy attacks on the Blue and Yellow Zones. At one stage, Nod separatists banded together and attacked Paris, signifying the start of the Incursion War, as well as hijacked the GST Methuselah to crash it down on Chicago. The latter was saved by a heroic GDI commander - at the cost of losing his eyesight in the process. He would later on play an important role in the Ascension Conflict. Despite GDI advancements in Zone Armor and the development of the Hunter Tanks in combating Nod Separatist Flame Tanks, it could not protect the TCN and pursue the Separatists at the same time, leaving the GDI military in disarray. However, with the expansion of the GDI airforce and the development of the Crawler in 2073, the GDI military was reorganised into three branches: Offense, Defense and Support classes. A year after the introduction of the Crawlers, GDI and Nod Loyalists were able to protect the TCN constructions and crushed the Separatists as a military force, driving Gideon and the other Separatist leaders into hiding. It was during this period when TCN construction was partially completed did GDI gain renewed funds from the new method of harvesting Tiberium. The renewed funding enabled the GDI military to reintroduce the mechanised walkers such as the Titan and the Mammoth Mk. II that were gradually shelved after the Firestorm Crisis, much to the delight of the veterans of the Second Tiberium War. The GDI Council would also direct the funds to rebuild the areas that were previously scarred by Tiberium, most notably the city that would become the capital city of the GDI government: New Adana. Ascension Conflict With the TCN nearing completion the alliance between GDI and Nod still held, although the 15 years of tension between them still existed. Despite the coming of a new Golden Age, GDI's political situation was on shaky ground because of the alliance, which was not helped by Gideon's raids. Indeed on 1 May 2077, Gideon attempted to assassinate Kane at the TCN opening ceremony in New Adana, sparking the Fourth Tiberium War twelve hours later. The GDI-Nod alliance still held as they initially battled against the Nod separatists, which included the protection of both Kane and GDI General Secretary Evelyn Rios. GDI extremists led by Colonel Louise James followed their orders and worked alongside the Nod loyalists despite their suspicions of Kane's motives. For a week, Gideon's propaganda was spurring many civilians living in the impoverished yellow and red zones to topple GDI and Kane. Gideon particularly targeted Colonel James's aggressive actions against the Separatists, which divided the military and political leadership. On 6th May, New Adana was attacked by Gideon's supporters. GDI managed to uphold their mandate and take back the city; however Kane was forced to fight through Colonel James' forces to reach the New Adana TCN Hub. Unable to convince Rios of Kane's actions, James decided to act on her suspicions and started investigating Kane's actions. Collecting evidence of Kane's attempts to supposedly bring back the Scrin via the TCN and the Scrin tower, and having avoided assassination by Kane's own forces, James confronted Rios and General Riggs with the information. However both dismissed her, and thus she declared martial law on New Adana, effectively turning the 15-year internal strife within GDI into a full-fledged civil war. Although New Adana had fallen to the rogue GDI forces, James and her crew onboard the GST Tzadik were arrested and imprisoned by Riggs' GDI marines. However, the crew escaped and pursued Kane and his Nod followers to Threshold 19. James attempted to assassinate the Nod messiah but could not validate her kill. This resulted in both rogue and loyal GDI forces fighting Nod for control of the TCN, thereby terminating the shaky alliance. GDI managed to secure the tower but Kane and all Nod followers managed to sync the tower with the help of Commander Parker through his optical implants and Ascended. With Colonel James being unaccounted for, GDI is reunited once again under Rios, ending the brief but costly Fourth Tiberium War. The activation of the Tower proved to be the final piece in the TCN's completion, as Tiberium growth is slowly receded around the nodes. With all remaining Nod followers having disappeared, GDI remains as the sole planetary superpower on Earth. Yet, GDI itself was wary of the new Golden Age, for the Scrin were still out there, and some were indeed skeptical of whether Kane had permanently disappeared from public eye. GDI military doctrine The GDI relies on a combination of powerful, rugged, and versatile technology. Standard GDI doctrine calls for combined arms "shock and awe" warfare, unleashing devastating and comprehensive assaults with mixed air, land, sea, and space-based weapons. Outside observers have been recorded as noting that GDI's offensive operations are a "slow-moving juggernaut" that crushes through all opposition with a force of extremely well-armored and supported assault units. Man-for-man and vehicle-for-vehicle, GDI weapons systems are often superior to their opponents in terms of raw firepower and durability. As for base defense it differs little from their offensive doctrine. They use a number of heavy fire power defence platforms, each suited to a different type of enemy - 20mm rapid-fire automatic chainguns,, atop 20ft high platforms, for infantry hordes, and powerful Sonic Emitters or railgun equipped turrets in some cases to wipe out an advancing armour division. They will use sheer brute force to not just stop but to completely obliterate a hostile force. A failed attack on a GDI base will often leave few or no survivors. This philosophy is summed up in GDI's iconic Mammoth series of super heavy tanks, from the original X-66 Mammoth Tank, to the devastating Mammoth Mk. II and the awe inspiring Mammoth Armored Reclamation Vehicle, both nearly unstoppable juggernauts of power in their day. Preferring overwhelming firepower to subtlety, GDI forces have few stealth units. Rapid attack capabilities are generally supplied by light assault vehicles, such as the iconic Orca VTOL aircraft, and orbitally-deployed Drop Troops or Zone Troopers. Their weapons systems range from conventional firearms, smoothbore cannons, and guided missiles to high velocity railguns, highly destructive Sonic weaponry, and state of the art orbital Ion cannons. Within GDI, certain military units exist with exclusive access to top-of-the-line technologies. For instance, in the span of time between the Second and Third Tiberium Wars, the Steel Talons armored division was founded to provide a testing bed for GDI's more experimental technologies, focusing on mechanised units. Many of the units first fielded by the Talons became standard for all of GDI by the Third Tiberium War. Operating as of the Third Tiberium War, Zone Operations Command is a high tech military special operations group specializing in Tiberium reclamation and operations in hazardous environments, such as Red Zones. While it lacks access to certain heavy firepower technologies, such as railguns, ZOCOM has access to extremely advanced harmonic resonance technology. In addition, to win the support of the local populace, GDI organizes humanitarian aid in the form of refugee aid air drops and, often large, excursions to Yellow Zones to provide medical aid. One of GDI's largest and most powerful vehicles, the M'ammoth '''A'rmed 'R'eclamation 'V'ehicle ('''MARV), is the one of these final means of dealing both with Tiberium with its onboard refinery and Nod heretics, hostile mutants and Scrin invaders through its unparalleled firepower. Unfortunately, 3 MARVs met their volatile end at the hands of the experimental Nod AI LEGION, and as it was found out in 2062, they did little to stop the Tiberium contagion from spreading like out-of-control wildfire. During the Ascension Conflict, the Mammoth Tank is no longer the strongest tank on the battlefield, as its walker brother, the Mastodon, takes that role, but Mammoths are still quite deadly in spite of being heavily armed meat shields, and are regardless iconic of GDI in the Conflict. The Firehawks, Orcas and the whole GDI arsenal was upgraded and then, during the Incursion War, GDI deployed the very first Crawler to support their huge armies, granting them previously unknown manuverability in the battlefield. They also reclassified their forces into Offense, Defense, and Support classes, each of which had their own Crawler design to ensure success. Despite the huge overhaul in their military, GDI raw firepower still remains unmatched compared to their Nod counterparts. Technology Level GDI technological development has been brought about by the financial support of the G8 nations, the wealthiest economies of the world during the First Tiberium War. Developments in recent years include sonic weaponry and quickly specialized hovercraft. GDI has countered Nod's increasing arsenal of lasers with railguns, fielded by everything from Mammoth Tanks to Commandos, and has also researched into powered armour technologies. The pinnacle of GDI military technology, the Ion cannon, is a space-based energy weapon of mass destruction is capable of obliterating just about anything with pinpoint accuracy. GDI also pioneered the use of mechanized walkers and developed the ORCA aircraft series of VTOL aircraft, a unique design which incorporates VTOL technology into fast ground attack aircraft. Following the First Tiberium War, military research and development rapidly increased, with the development of a wide number of technologies. space exploration, mechanized walkers, and HoverTech were some of the technological achievements of GDI by the Second Tiberium War. However, due to cuts in budget and new GDI policies after 2036, GDI has phased out its more expensive and exotic technologies, such as most of its Mechanized walkers and HoverTech, replacing them with cheaper, more reliable technologies. GDI hasn't forgone all of its more exotic technologies however. Some of the walkers are still in service, though they are mainly used by the Steel Talons experimental division. The Juggernaut is the only mainstream walker left in use while the Steel Talons used the Titan Mk. II, Wolverine Mk. II, and Behemoth in their forces. GDI also hasn't completely abandoned hover technology either. In the interbellum between the Firestorm Crisis and the Third Tiberium War, GDI developed a dedicated anti-aircraft vehicle, the Slingshot. GDI also retooled the Shatterer, another hovercraft which was originally developed for civilian use, but GDI realised their potential and converted them for military use in the opening stages of the Third Tiberium War. By the time of the Ascension Conflict, many GDI vehicles utilize hover technology; such as the Shockwave and Sandstorm, even engineers. GDI lags behind Nod in other areas, however. While GDI has a greater presence in outer space, and can afford larger, more expensive tanks, Nod has outpaced them in terms of optic camouflage and laser technology. Nod's disregard towards ethical guidelines means that Nod is the world's leader in Cybernetics and the military applications of Tiberium, two areas where GDI is reluctant to begin research. However, GDI is unrivalled in terms of Tiberium reclamation technology and second only to the Scrin in terms of space-based technology. Their global headquarters was the space station [[GDSS Philadelphia|GDSS Philadelphia]] until it was destroyed, and they also have orbital facilities to house, store and maintain military forces in preparation for a rapid deployment anywhere on Earth via dropships and drop pods. Of particular importance is their network of orbital Ion cannons which act as both tactical and strategic array of superweapons. All were used to their maximum potential throughout the wars. They apparently maintained their dominance of space even during the Scrin invasion. Their efforts to reverse the environmentally catastrophic effects of Tiberium has led to the development of several technologies against Tiberium infestation, a technological area in which Nod and the Scrin have traditionally shown little interest in. Most of these center around the breakthrough discovery of Tiberium's harmonic resonance frequency which, at least for a period of time, allowed GDI to contain and even push back Tiberium growth. Examples include the Sonic Emitters, which was also deployed as extremely effective base defence, the Sonic Repulsor Field and the Shatterer. Prior to the Third Tiberium War their efforts have had some success in converting some areas into Blue zones, such as New Eden. However, in the years following the next evolution of Tiberium rendered GDI's Harmonic Resonance technology became nearly useless and all of GDI's reclamation efforts were quickly negated. GDI research is carried out in a variety of specialized institutions worldwide. Futuretech Labs is a prominent example, and the research staff was located in New Eden, until the initial Scrin invasion forced them to evacuate. Australia hosted a prominent Tiberium research facility before the research site was destroyed by the Black Hand. Rumors abound that the site was researching Liquid Tiberium and that a major detonation of Liquid Tiberium at the facility was the cause of its destruction and also accelerated the growth of Tiberium throughout Australia, speeding up its transformation into a Red Zone. Using the lessons learned in the Third Tiberium War against the Scrin, and gaining the extra funds needed, GDI developed many technologies in that timeline. This included the introduction of the Crawler and the revival of certain walker technologies such as the Mastodon and Titan walkers by the time of the Ascension Conflict to combat future alien incursions. Not wanting to allow any faction take over air superiority again, GDI also invested in capital ships such as the Kodiak class and the Global Stratospheric Transports to expand their air force that are capable of bombarding any static bases from the skies, as well as allowing for very quick response to threats, anywhere in the world. Category:Organizations